1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a fruit press, comprising a housing which is removably arranged on a frame and encloses a pressing chamber, parallel shafts which are mounted in the frame and protrude into the pressing chamber, on the one hand for two press rollers which can be driven in opposite directions and which comprise semi-spherical press recesses distributed over the circumference and on the other hand for two press heads which are provided beneath the press rollers, can be driven in opposite directions in relation to the press rollers, and form spherical press punches which cooperate with the press recesses of the press rollers, a knife which is displaceable along a guide between the press rollers, and a detachable securing means against withdrawal for the press rollers and press heads which are slid axially onto their conical shafts.
2. Description of the Related Art
In known fruit presses of this kind (WO 2004/052126 A1) a pressing chamber is provided with two adjacently arranged press rollers and two press heads which are associated with these press rollers and respectively form a pressing tool and which are equipped spherical press punches. As a result of the rotation of the mutually associated press rollers and press heads of the two pressing tools in opposite directions, the press punches engage in semi-spherical press recesses of the press rollers. The fruit to be pressed, which is usually shell fruit such as oranges, is usually supplied to the intermeshing zone between the adjacently arranged press rollers where it is received by the press recesses of the press rollers and is conveyed between the press rollers to the press heads disposed beneath the press rollers. Since a knife is provided between the press rollers which is lifted to perform a cutting stroke against the direction of conveyance of the fruit by way of driving cams of the press heads, the fruit is cut in half so that during the further rotation of the press rollers press punches engaging in the press recesses will press out the fruit halves. In order to strip off the skin of the fruit adhering to the press punches, stripping members are provided on the mutually averted sides of the press heads which engage with a sword-like stripping finger in a circumferential groove of the press punches when the press heads rotate past said finger, so that the skin halves of the fruit will move onto the stripping finger and will be detached from the press punch in order to be carried off to a collecting container along a deflection surface of the stripping members.
For the necessary cleaning of the pressing chamber, it is necessary at first to remove the housing from the supporting frame before the press punches and the press rollers can be removed for cleaning from their respective shafts which are held with the drive in the frame. Although the knife and stripping members are detachably mounted and can therefore be cleaned with the press punches and the press rollers together with the housing outside of the pressing chamber in a dishwasher for example, the effort invested in the cleaning work to be performed in the region of the frame remains comparatively high because the frame forms the rear wall of the pressing chamber.